An open letter to the Mental Health Community

Dear doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and other Mental Health professionals,














Warm regards and best wishes,

Gillan Drew

[UPDATE: The value of persistence]

8 thoughts on “An open letter to the Mental Health Community

  1. Wow, this post is so powerful! I am not in the UK, and here in the Netherlands, most mental health teams do take on autistic people at least if they have co-existing mental illness. I at least am accepted at an assertive community treatment team (I have co-existing depression and BPD syptoms). However, I have somewhat of an opposite experience to yours and your wife’s. I have an at least average IQ but function in many respects at a level that causes me to best be served by the learning disability services. Yet I also do happen to have autism-related challenging behavior. This causes th learning disability services to dismiss me because “you have psychiatric problems, we don’t do that”. To illustrate, a man at my day activities who is autistic with a co-occurring intellectual disability, gets one-on-one throughout the day, yet this same day activities center cut my hours because of similar behavioral challenges. In short, though mental health for high-functioning autistics is okay here, many autistic individuals still fall through the cracks of the care system here too.

    Liked by 1 person

    • It’s very saddening that despite all the progress we’ve made in recent years, there’s still a lack of acceptance or understanding of people with autism. It’s neither a learning disability, nor a mental health disorder, but shares facets of both and often co-exists with them, so we fall between the two departments (LD and MH), with neither side wanting to take responsibility. I understand they have their boundaries of what they do and do not deal with, but it’s not our fault we don’t fit their criteria, and that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for us to receive a lower quality of care than a person with a straight mental health disorder or straight learning disability. Instead of a rigid demarcation between the two departments, a slight overlap would surely give those of us with autism a place to belong.


  2. I find it extremely odd how some mental health professionals will dismiss psychiatric symptoms comorbid with autism, or even caused by a form of ASD (such as MCDD) as untreatable because of the autism. Yes, there are neurological differences at play, but that does not mean that treatments such as CBT or other forms of therapy are suddenly entirely ineffective, or that medication won’t do anything. Autistic brains are still human brains and roughly the same rules do still apply to them. We’re not a different species that is to be beheld in silent wonder, from a distance, and left to its own devices. Sometimes it does feel like that’s how people consider us, though. I sincerely hope that your wife will receive the care she needs — this situation sounds unfair to all of you.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I just wanted to check in with how your wife is doing? A lot of what you have written resonates with me with my own familial challenges. Just wanted to show solidarity 👊🏼.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Well, the GP has thrown a whole bunch more meds at her which have turned her into a zombie, so there’s been less confrontation – although what there has been has been particularly nasty because she’s less inhibited in what she says and can’t stop herself from expressing her worst emotions. In between times, since starting on them she’s retreated further into herself, just sits on the sofa staring at her phone, oblivious to what’s going on around her. It’s like she’s become completely cut off.

      On the plus side, I’m now doing a course in Anxiety Management, depression and CBT and bringing what I’ve learnt home and trying to teach it to her. Whether it’ll make any difference, I’m not sure, but something has to change as we can’t continue the way we are.

      I hope that your own challenges can be overcome. Fighting the good fight is the only way I know how to deal with things.

      Thanks for the support, and all the best.



  4. Gillan, I am a new reader of your posts and am also almost finished reading your excellent book about Adults newly diagnosed. You are a very talented writer. I am very sorry that your wife is having difficulties. I wish and hope only the best for you and your family.


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